


Before I Was Your Scapegoat

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Crack and Angst, Crushes, Episode: s01e09 A Spy in the House of Love, F/M, Gen, Typical Dollhouse Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 16:26:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11256663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: Ivy might have a wee little immature crush on Laurence Dominic. It's all very cute until it's not.





	Before I Was Your Scapegoat

Topher was the only one who knew about it in the first place.

Not that Ivy wasn’t obvious about it. She knew she was. Every time Laurence Dominic entered the room she started making the googly eyes and feeling vague desires to draw hearts all over her very important notes. She would say it was atypical for her, but it wasn’t really atypical. In college, at least, she used to get these crushes all the time.

In any case, Topher was the only one who noticed because he was the only one who cared to notice. Certainly the dolls were too spaced out to notice any differences in her behavior around Dominic. And most of the staff, like Adelle and Boyd and the other security members, didn’t give a shit about anything Ivy did or felt. She was more of an intern than a real scientist in their eyes, and in any case Dominic, head of security and probably the second most powerful Dollhouse employee in L.A., was way, way out of her league.

Of course Topher disagreed with that.

“You should tell him,” he said, one late night when they were making very little progress on a new imprint because Topher couldn’t focus for two whole minutes in a row.

Ivy made a face at him. “Tell who what? Tell Victor’s new imprint that he’s secretly a doll? Pretty sure that wouldn’t be a great addition to this programming. Tell Boyd we think Echo is secretly plotting to take over the Dollhouse? Pretty sure he already knows that. Tell…”

“Tell Dominic that you like him,” Topher said, holding up a finger to shush her. “Yes, those other things would be terrible ideas—I would never suggest them—but this is brilliant. You should just go up to him, like, after an engagement, and say, Mr. Dominic, I think you’re really hot and I want to get coffee. And then…” He paused dramatically. “We could find out his coffee preferences. I want to know!”

“That’s the worst idea of the three,” Ivy said flatly. “No.” She pointed at the computer screen. “Do more programming, less talking about my romantic life.”

Topher slung a casual arm over her shoulder. “Ivy, Ivy, you don’t have a romantic life. But you could. I have seen the way he looks at you.” He made little fireworks with his hands. “Boom boom boom. Sparks flying across the room. I mean, I did initially think he had some unrequited stoic pining for DeWitt going on, but then he met you and…”

“You’re imagining things,” Ivy said.

“I do not imagine.”

“You imagine all the time and you’re imagining right now. And for the record I don’t want to ask him out anyway.”

Topher gave her a look. “Really?”

“It’s unprofessional to date a coworker,” Ivy said, putting her hands on her hips. “And I don’t have time to date right now. Besides, Dominic is even busier than I am. He probably wouldn’t even have time to grab coffee. And if we actually got together we’d have to see each other regularly, which would mean seriously working with our schedules, and things would be really awkward.”

“So, you meant you have excuses,” Topher said. He grinned. “Oh, this is good. I didn’t know you had so many of them! You’ve really been thinking about it.”

“You never let the subject rest.”

“Only because it’s meant to be,” Topher said. “Trust me. I only support wonderful, beautiful things.”

Ivy rolled her eyes. They worked at the Dollhouse—anyone else would have seen that as a clear sign that Topher had no idea of what “beautiful” meant. But then, she thought it meant something different from the usual to him. To him, “beautiful” meant clever and amusing and interesting enough to occupy him. Probably seeing Dominic and Ivy together would be amusing in that way. But he’d be equally delighted to see Dominic shoot her down, which was why it was impossible to take him seriously. All he wanted was some fun.

Which, to be fair, Ivy perhaps shouldn’t have been looking for more. Her last relationship had been serious, almost ending in engagement, and that had ended painfully instead. But, well…she liked Dominic. There was something about the tightness of his muscles and the lines of his face that made her wonder what he looked like when he actually relaxed, if he ever did. She wanted to see what he would act like if he could ever stop being all business for even ten seconds. She wanted to find out what he was really like. And maybe she also wanted him to pin her against a wall (the way he often pinned Topher) and make out with her, but that was…comparatively minor. Right?

“You know what might be a good idea?” Topher said. “If you wore that perfume DeWitt wears. I mean, I still think he used to like her. There’s no way he wouldn’t notice.”

Ivy wrinkled her nose. “That’s just weird.”

“Smell is one of the easiest ways to trigger emotion,” Topher said. “The two are closely tied, much more so than hearing or sight. So if you wear a scent that used to trigger a certain…physical reaction in him…it could very easily do so again, leading things in a very good direction. I think it’s definitely worth considering.”

Ivy sighed. “Topher, if you’re going to talk about brain science, how about we work on the imprint? Like we’re supposed to be doing?”

“Pfft. Okay. But just for the record, I know you’re just avoiding the subject. And we will talk about this again.”

* * *

 

A few weeks later, Dominic tried to have Ivy sent to the attic. Then he tried to murder her and Topher and Echo all at the same time. Then he got sent to the attic instead, an operation Ivy assisted in, though she did much less than Topher. It was a bad day all around.

Topher barely talked to her about anything except programming for a few days. He didn’t mention Dominic’s name. Ever. Ivy appreciated it at first, until if began to chafe. She had no one else to talk to, after all. No one else knew.

Now, probably, no one else would ever know.

“Do you think it could have been different?” she finally asked Topher one night when they were working on an imprint again.

“If you mean this imprint, obviously yes, there are a million divergent ways to create even one facet of a personality—this is just the most efficient. If you mean that engagement with Echo yesterday, oh boy. Trying to control her is like…I mean at this point why even bother? If you mean…”

“I mean with Dominic,” Ivy said.

Topher was silent.

Ivy said, “I don’t know. Do you think things could have ended differently? I mean, if I’d ever actually bothered to get to know him instead of worshipping him from a distance. Do you think he would have…you know, not tried to frame me as the spy? I don’t think I could have convinced him to leave the NSA but at least…”

Topher said, “No.”

Ivy made a face and turned back to the screen.

“No,” Topher said. “If he thought you were expendable in the first place, he was always a much worse person than I imagined. I mean, I just thought he was a grump, but as it turned out…trying to send someone to the attic? That’s evil.”

“We sent him to the attic,” Ivy said.

Topher shrugged.

There had been reasons for that, of course. But no reason really felt like it was enough. It was just self preservation, really. Probably the same reason Dominic had targeted Ivy, the weakest link in the chain at the Dollhouse, the one girl no one would really miss or care about if she was gone. It was just lucky Topher and Echo had ended up caring after all.

“It could have been me,” Ivy said.

“It wasn’t.”

“It could have been.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Everyone’s upset that it was Dominic. If it had been me,” Ivy said, “They’d be celebrating the end of a security leak.” She shivered. “Topher…”

“It wasn’t you,” Topher said. “Because you weren’t the spy. You’re a good person.” He touched her shoulder. “You’re going to be fine.”

Good person, huh? And that was why she’d gotten off? And that was why Dominic was gone?

“I should thank Echo,” Ivy said.

“Sure. Go ahead. Give the mutating doll some validation,” Topher said. He laughed. “No, go ahead. DeWitt did it. I did it. She saved the day.” He waved his arms. “But I’m warning you she is crazy.”

Old discussion. “Dolls showing initiative has precedence, as seen in studies by…”

From there everything became scientific again. Much more professional. And they did not speak of Dominic again, except as a memory of a time long ago, a time irrevocably past and half forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> Just some thoughts on a crack ship that would never end well. Also I know canon Topher is actually an obnoxious and sexist douche to Ivy but let me have this, okay? I swear there is a universe where he is actually just a gossiping idiot and a semi-decent friend.


End file.
